|
February 25, 1999
Dear Friends:
This year, Amity’s winter teachers conference was in Kunming,
the capital of Yunnan province. Yunnan has wonderful weather,
lots of exotic "minority peoples," great scenery, and
more impoverished counties than any other province in China. (Great
scenery often makes lousy farmland.) Amity has many rural development
projects in Yunnan, many in mountain communities where cooler
weather, poor soil, and steep slopes make for meager crop yields.
This year we were able to visit Amity projects in several Miao
minority people villages. Our entry to one of these villages,
Ma Huang Qing, was rather dramatic. We were greeted by two long
rows of villagers singing the hymn
"Crown Him, Crown Him" in Chinese (many Miao are Christian,
including virtually all the residents of this village) and then
escorted to a clearing carpeted with pine needles where village
leaders introduced the project.
The project itself was fairly straightforward. Originally the
village’s only source of water was a spring several hundred
meters down a steep slope, so daily they had to haul water up
in pails. This meant they not only had little water, but also
less time and labor available for other tasks. Average income
was equivalent to about 50 dollars a year. The project involved
locating a spring on another mountain, and then building a small
10-kilometer pipeline across a series of ridges to the village.
Financial support was provided by Amity, the local government,
and the county religious affairs bureau, and the villagers did
the work. Initially the plan was just to supply drinking water
for the village, but the spring produced enough extra water for
some irrigation, and shortly before our arrival the village finished
building its second cement irrigation water tank.
Initially, the project seemed simple enough, but there were
a few things we couldn=t make sense of. The opening speech of
the old village chief had been hard to follow because of repeated
but vague references to how he had once thought Christ was only
invisible but now he realized Christ was also tangible. Also,
we noticed that some of the villagers we passed were crying. Originally
we assumed they were crying for joy now that they had water, but
a little inquiry determined that they were crying because everybody
else in the village had water but they didn’t. Later, as
we talked with people and learned more, these loose ends began
to make more sense.
In his opening speech the village chief had talked about how
during the Cultural Revolution the village had been persecuted
for its Christian faith. We later learned that by the end of the
CR many people in the village felt that they should have nothing
to do with outsiders and should rely on prayer alone for assistance
with their economic problems. Another faction in the village was
willing to accept help in improving their material lot, and as
the village tried to decide what to do about their poverty quite
a bit of conflict between these
two groups ensued. When the water project was first proposed several
households in the village opposed it, including the old village
chief, and it was only after considerable persuasion that the
project began at all. Even when it did start, some families refused
to participate.
As the villagers worked together building the pipeline, some
old conflicts were gradually put to rest. Later, even some of
the families who had originally refused to participate changed
their minds, and they were allowed to join in return for taking
an extra share in the maintenance work. The entire pipeline needs
to be checked every day for leaks, so maintenance is a considerable
task. Several families are still outside the water network because
they refuse to contribute any labor to the project (there may
also be personality or even
theological conflicts underlying their refusal), so all is not
sweetness and light, but the village leaders are still working
on the problem.
One lesson I drew from this experience is the need to be cautious
when trying to make sense of an unfamiliar situation—things
are often more complicated than they seem. A second was the ever-necessary
reminder that God does indeed work in unexpected ways. This is
what the village chief had been referring to in his speech. Despite
his initial reluctance, he now felt that God had worked in a very
unexpected and tangible way not only to help his village solve
its water problems, but also to heal some of its divisions.
After looking at the water project we were taken back to the
village for a snack of buckwheat bread, honey, and eggs. One young
villager spoke fairly good Mandarin, so I decided to question
him about the local crops. As best I can translate it, the exchange
went like this:
Don: "What’s growing in that field?"
Villager: "Vegetables (you fool from the city)."
Don: "I know, but what kind of vegetable?"
Villager: "The kind you eat (Lord give me patience)."
Don: "Yeah, but what do you call it?"
Villager: "Cabbage (don’t you have eyes?)."
And so on until I finally wormed the information I wanted out
of him and he decided that even if I was ignorant at least I was
persistent. He turned to go, then turned back and announced: "My
name is Zheng Maolin." I told him my name was Don, and we
parted on terms of mutual respect.
Personal notes
The main event for us this year has been Wei Hong’s new
job as an evangelist (assistant pastor) at Living Spirit Church.
She shares general responsibility for leading worship, preaching,
visitation, and other pastoral duties, and is also working with
several fellowship groups. Most of the people in this church have
been there for decades, so the learning curve is often a bit steep
for an outsider. However, on the whole it is working out well.
I (Don) continue to plug away with Amity, and try to find time
to write on issues related to English teaching, both in general
and more specifically as a form of Christian service and ministry.
Hope you are all well. Call if you ever pass through Hong Kong!
Sincerely,
Don and Wei Hong
The 1999 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study page 180
|
